Justice Bhavani Prasad of the High court on Wednesday suspended the operation of the government’s order revising the minimum wages payable to workers employed in any manufacturing process carried out in a factory other than those specified in the schedule of Minimum Wages Act. The judge passed the order while taking on file a writ petition filed by the Employers Federation of Southern India and other managements challenging the validity of the order issued by the labour department.
The petitioners contended that Section 5 (2) of the Minimum Wages Act required the state government to consult the advisory board whenever minimum wages were to be revised in the mode specified but in the present case such a procedure was not followed before issuing the notification.
C.Niranjan Rao, counsel for the petitioner, pointed out that failure to follow the prescribed procedure made the order illegal.